In response to a federal lawsuit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has unveiled a bold, 26-year glide path to eventually enforce a decades-old ban on lethal marine bycatch.
WASHINGTON — Following a lawsuit from environmental groups demanding the immediate enforcement of federal seafood import laws, the United States government filed a response Thursday outlining a comprehensive, phased approach to gently transition the nation away from international supply chains that routinely drown marine mammals.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) assured the court that while it recognizes the statutory requirement to block seafood caught using lethal, whale-ensnaring gear, a sudden enforcement of the law would prove overly disruptive to the global bycatch market. Instead, the agency unveiled a multi-decade compliance pathway designed to reduce the volume of illegally imported dead cetaceans by up to 15 percent by the next reporting deadline.
You cannot simply flip a switch and expect global supply chains to immediately comply with a strict federal ban passed in 1972. We are working closely with international fleets to establish feasible, science-based targets for gradually phasing out the indiscriminate slaughter of endangered porpoises.
The U.S. remains the world’s largest seafood importer, strictly prohibiting domestic fleets from operating lethal gillnets while historically waving through international shipments harvested using the exact same methods. According to the agency’s latest sustainability framework, foreign fisheries failing to meet their interim bycatch-reduction targets will now be allowed to purchase "marine mortality offset credits" from the Verra registry, theoretically protecting a dolphin in the Atlantic to balance out one dragged aboard in the Indian Ocean.
The next status hearing on the government's progress toward acknowledging the law is scheduled for the third quarter, safely after the peak of the winter tuna harvest.